International symposium and seminar at Aranjuez, Spain,
September 1997

An international symposium on the conservation and restoration of contemporary art was conducted at the Isabel Farnese Cultural Center in Aranjuez, Spain, on September 1-5, 1997. The seminar was organized and produced by the faculty of Spain's Center for Art Restoration Studies (a.k.a. CEROA, El Centro de Estudios se Restauracion de Obras de Arte), and the Center for Furniture Restoration (CRM, Centro de Restauracion del Mueble), in cooperation with conservators from the Prado and the Reina Sophia Museum of the National Art Center. CEROA and CRM are planning a coordinated move from Madrid to Aranjuez. This symposium was also a graduate seminar, with registrants receiving CEROA certificates at the close.

Most of the ca. 75 registrants were European. Lecturers from Spain, Greece and the United States addressed the seminar, moderated by Dr. Pilar Sedano Espin, Director of Conservation at the Reina Sophia Museum. In an inaugural commentary on Monday, the first day, art historian and conservator Dr. Matias Diaz Padron (The Prado; CEROA) posed a classic conundrum of artistic production: artists can guarantee the destroy their art in the very act of creation. However, he continued, inherent vice has recently become more usual than in previous eras, and contemporary artists often embrace decay and ephemerality as fundamental aesthetic principles.

In the first scheduled lecture, Dr. Sedano reviewed profound condition problems which will apparently prevent "Guernica," Picasso's monumentally historic painting on canvas, from travelling henceforth. Structural problems beset the painting early, and aging materials and structures from conservation treatments in New York have imposed their own equally difficult problems. That evening Dr. Costas Balas (Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, Crete) explained the technology and medical and conservation applications of a multiimaging, multi-spectrographic, digital instrument developed at FORTH. Dr. Balas' demonstration stimulated very active discussion and some disappointment that the instrument is presently being released only to a few laboratories worldwide.

Emilio Ruiz (Diputacion Foral de Alava) on the second day discussed problems of outdoor sculpture. Most notably, the placement and deterioration of Chillida's magnificent and monumental "Comb of the Wind" (1977, weathering steel) in the seething ocean breakers at San Sebastian engendered an investigation. Here is a sculpture incontestably site-specific and not to be removed; here is nature literally and rapidly consuming art; here aesthetic and spiritual powers seem to transcend conservators' concerns. Ruiz' field observations, experimental design and preliminary conclusions were instructive.

On Wednesday, Irene Civil (Jesus Marull, Barcelona; A. Tapies Foundation) described a group of large paintings which Antonio Tapies recently produced in various media on non-uniform sheets of non-woven or non-fibrous, unstretched and very flexible polymeric fabrics. Civil had not only to design systems for hanging the paintings, but also to design and oversee the paintings' packing for safe travel. Seminar participants were reminded by Jay Kruger (National Gallery of Art, USA; AIC President) that as contemporary artists extend their range of materials, art is more vulnerable to change and the maintenance of art in pristine condition becomes much more problematic. He described the "narrow windows of forgiveness" in storage, handling and intervention that are associated with new materials, and the special respect and altered expectations they require. Kruger called for development of, and support to develop, all types of necessary resources, such as opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and for early and mid-career training, and more positions for conservators of contemporary art.

Thursday, Elvira Gaspar (Barcelona; Miro Foundation) structured her lecture around her impressive conservation of a gouache which Miro long ago rolled up and mailed to an exhibition. One of her themes was the importance of focus, ingenuity and positive attitude in providing excellent care to artworks, through the private practice of conservation. Karl Buchberg (Museum of Modern Art, NYC) offered very cogent advice and useful techniques through several impressive case studies in the handling, matting and framing of very large works of art on paper.

On a topic of continuing worldwide discussion, on Friday Carol Mancusi-Ungaro (the Menil collection, Houston) reviewed her artist-centered approach to determining what aspects of artworks should be conserved.. She shared excerpts from videotaped interviews with living artists, drawn from the rich and accessible archive of such dialogues which her work is producing. Conservator-analyst John Scott (New York Conservation Center; Princeton University) had discussed on Tuesday logical, sociological, legal and materials aspects of evaluating condition in contemporary art. He identified contradictions between information developed through critical scholarship and technical examination centered on artworks, records, artists, and witnesses, and assertions under authority conferred by enhancements of artists' moral and legal rights. Scott suggested a balanced, logical approach to evaluating condition in contemporary art.

The Reina Sophia Museum has the most important collection of contemporary art in Spain, and most of the museum's conservators presented in the seminar throughout the week. Their lectures treated a range of cases and issues, with a broad range of methods and materials within a minimal intervention approach. These presentations also included images and descriptions of the Reina Sophia's new facilities, especially the conservation and art storage areas. Some of the American lecturers were accorded private tours.

The early September 1997 international seminar on the conservation of contemporary art comprised thirteen morning lectures, an evening presentation of the FORTH analytical instrument, and two evening round table open discussions. The languages of the meeting were Spanish and English, with excellent simultaneous translation of all presentations. Spanish conservators are increasingly interested in international exchanges of information, expertise and personnel, and a special aspect of the very comfortably-paced seminar was the convivial "behind the scenes" symposium of interaction and exchange among lecturers and seminar organizers.

A second international seminar is planned on a closely related topic, probably for early September 1998. In the meantime, CEROA expects to make lecture texts and related information from the 1997 seminar available in a proceedings publication. Contacts: Mr. Xavier Carrion, Director, and Ms. Sirga dela Pisa, faculty, CEROA, Eduardo del Palacio 5, 28002 Madrid.; Ms. Maria Carrion, Director, CRM, Eresma 7, 28002 Madrid. <http://www.sendanet.es/ceroa>